The Unknown Emotion of Online Millennial Students: Empathy
If you’re working in online higher education, research shows the majority of your students are from the Millennial Generation. A study out of Northeastern University found that Millennials are twice as likely to enroll in an online course compared to other generations (Zimmerman, 2018). To best serve this generation, you need to be aware of how they think. One major unknown emotion about the online Millennial Generation is empathy. A recent study conducted at a university in New England surveyed 715 online Millennial Generation students and interviewed 7 of these surveyed students (Hobson, 2019). The study sought to fully understand how online Millennial Generation students perceive their relationships with online academic advisors and how to best support online Millennial Generation students. One finding from this study was that online Millennial Generation students are empathetic towards their online academic advisors' workload and caseload, online Gen Z students, and other Millennials.
Academic Advisor’s Workload and Caseload
Online Millennial Generation students are incredibly empathic towards their online academic advisors in two ways. The first is their online academic advisor’s workload. This means how much work an online academic advisor completes in a day and how much they are responsible for. Online Millennial Generation students were surprised that an online academic advisor could keep track of hundreds of students’ progress yet were able to contact all of them. One participant described this process when he mentioned,
How on earth are they supposed to have an individual relationship with that many people? And that's what I noticed about these advisors. When they called me, they were actually talking to me like an individual, which I was surprised about.
The second way is their online academic advisor’s caseload, meaning how many students an online academic advisor works with. Online Millennial Generation students described how they perceived their online academic advisor working with hundreds of students or more all at the same time. For example, the statements of, “I know what they are sort of working with 150 something other people,” “Has a lot of other students that she's kind of watching out for,” and “Even though she has two or three hundred students” were all mentioned during interviews.
Another interesting finding that came from this topic of caseload, is that online Millennial Generation students liked the idea of being able to text their online academic advisors, however, they were empathetic towards their online academic advisors’ workload. When participants were asked if they would prefer texting instead of calls or emails when reaching out to their online academic advisors, all of the participants mentioned how while they would like texting, yet they know it would not be sustainable for the online academic advisor. One participant described this when he mentioned, “I can really see that in commonality, where people would probably prefer texting just because it's more of the norm now, but I can definitely also agree that it would be an issue when you have 200 students and you're texting all of them. Your phone's just going be blowing up all day.”
Online Gen Z Students
Online Millennial Generation students are the closest in age compared to Online Gen Z students and because of this, many Millennials are friends with Gen Z students. Two of the participants mentioned how Generation Z students would not have the same type of relationship with their online academic advisors like Millennial students do. One participant mentioned, “I know in my friend group, they have nerve wracking anxiety about phone calls. Even if it’s an email in the beginning that says hey reach out to me. And maybe inbox thing to them beginning and end of semester to make sure they are okay." She also had experience working with students in this generation and has witnessed their behaviors. She mentioned, “When I look at older (Gen Z) students, none of them want to participate. They are like, I don’t like people. And we say you need to work together and they shut down the second it comes to that.” Another participant mentioned how some of his friends who are in the Generation Z category have had unrealistic expectations of college and the work force. He mentioned,
Some of the freshmen tend to pick careers based on irrational reasons. There are a couple of people I know that have literally told me, "Yeah, I'm just going to go get my associate's degree in engineering because people say I can come out making 120 grand a year."
Other Online Millennials
Online Millennial Generation students also feel empathetic towards other Millennials. One participant described how she felt like an outlier compared to other Millennials when she shared,
I know from what I have read and seen online and I know I’m at the butt end of being a Millennial and they don’t want to go to college because of debt and job markets, but if they had that motivation and encouragement from the advisor, that might help them.
Another participant described that what methods worked for him when speaking with his online academic advisor may not work for other Millennials. He mentioned that he also felt like an outlier to the generation when he shared, “I'm not sure if all those chasms have been filled yet. You know, Millennials may have different expectations. And I'm a Millennial. I hate the term, but I am a Millennial.”
Overall, the data above demonstrates how critical empathy is in the lives of online Millennial Generation students. Understanding how they think and feel can lead to stronger bonds between advisors and online Millennial Generation students. It’s their insights which can also influence how online academic advisors will work with online Gen Z students and create the best environment for their success.
References
Hobson, L.A. (2019). Understanding online Millennial Generation students' relationship perceptions with online academic advisors. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.edu
Zimmerman, K. (2018). 3 reasons millennials might choose online learning over a traditional degree. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaytiezimmerman/2018/02/18/3-reasonsmillennials-might-choose-online-learning-over-a-traditionaldegree/#6dad9ae2545b
